Often times, alcoholics develop chronic health conditions as a result of their drinking. These conditions include heart disease, liver damage, brain damage, malnutrition, and mental disorders. Unfortunately, individuals who are addicted https://g-markets.net/sober-living/alcohol-tolerance-wikipedia/ to alcohol are at an increased risk of suicide due to severe depression and anxiety. By the time a person is in end-stage alcoholism, there can be no denying that drinking has taken over their life and damaged their health.

The first step will likely be a medically supervised detox, which will help rid your body of toxins and manage the symptoms of withdrawal. This stage is often characterized by heavy drinking, and the person may suffer from binge drinking disorder. They may not be addicted to alcohol physically yet, but emotional dependence on drinking is there. The person’s physical appearance won’t change, but they may be “hung over” due to excessive alcohol use all the time. They will then explain they were just looking for a good time, which involved drinking.

Addiction & Alcoholism

You will need to undergo therapy to get to the bottom of your alcoholism and know how to treat it. We all have specific problems and needs, and treating alcoholism is about understanding and catering to them to get results. You may become more irritable during this stage, especially if you aren’t actively consuming alcohol. It’s a lot easier to lie to those around you and yourself about your problems, but no matter how hard you try, others will begin to notice the truth.

The different types of treatments for alcoholism can involve interventions at various levels. Therapeutic intervention is directed at both alcohol dependence and abstinence. It includes psychotherapy, both at an individual and group level, with psychopharmacological intervention (disulfiram or naltrexone, among others). According to the DSM-5, How Long Can You Live With Cirrhosis? people can be diagnosed with alcohol use disorders after a year of persistent usage that interferes with their personal, social, and professional lives. Of course, the timeline for becoming addicted to alcohol depends on the person and the situation. During the middle stage of alcohol addiction, negative consequences start to pile up.

Stage 1: Experimenting and Binge Drinking

Typically, drinking too much doesn’t prevent most people from going to work even now. It is easiest to diagnose a person with alcohol use disorder in this final stage of it, but treatment, when one has been drinking so much, is most difficult. Those in the end stage of alcoholism, or late or deteriorative stage, are consumed by their drinking. Years of chronic alcohol consumption have ravaged their body and mind, and their lives revolve around little else other than the bottle.

They will often begin to experience cravings when they are not drinking. Symptoms of a person’s alcoholism will continue to grow worse as they progress into the illness. Without early intervention, a person can end up developing a severe addiction to alcohol and need serious alcohol treatment.